No Rams or Raiders? Fans, Here’s the Ticket : Football: USC and UCLA hoping to capitalize on moves by selling abandoned ticket holders on college game with aggressive marketing campaigns.

No matter how bad the weather or the opponent, Eric Shinn rarely missed a Raider home game at the Coliseum during the team’s 13 seasons in Los Angeles.

Last month, however, his favorite Sunday ritual disappeared when the Raiders decided to return to Oakland.

“I’ve been going to games in Los Angeles ever since they played their first [exhibition] game here against the Rams,” said Shinn, a Los Angeles native. “I was just devastated when the Raiders decided to leave. It was like somebody died.”

Although Shinn associated pro football’s departure from Los Angeles with death, USC’s Mark Ryan and UCLA’s Scott Mitchell felt as if they had just won the lottery.

Ryan and Mitchell are the marketing directors for the Trojan and Bruin football programs, and to them, having an NFL vacuum in the Southland meant more opportunities to sell tickets--to people like Shinn.

“When the Rams announced that they were leaving [for St. Louis], we really weren’t going to change our plans that much,” Ryan said. “But when the Raiders said that they were going back to Oakland, everything was turned upside down.

“We just got together, rolled up our sleeves and decided to be more aggressive. We’re now going to go after both the Raiders’ and Rams’ [former] season-ticket holders.”

So far, however, Shinn and other pro football fans have not raced to buy either USC or UCLA football tickets.

“True, Raider fans think that they’re unique and most probably would not turn to college football to fill the void,” said Shinn, who has been a Raider fan since 1970. “All I know is that I plan to travel north to Oakland to see a Raider home game at least once a year.”

Dave Lowenstein, UCLA’s director of ticket operations for the last 16 years, does not believe that all local NFL fans are like Shinn.

“Our ticket sales are the same as they usually are at this time of year because it is still early,” Lowenstein said. “The big push really starts now, about five weeks before the season starts.”

On the Prime Sports Network, which televises USC and UCLA games, a commercial promoting the Rose Bowl and the Bruins’ season and capitalizing on the NFL’s departure is already being shown.

It opens with newspaper headlines about the Rams’ move to St. Louis and the Raiders’ decision to return to Oakland. The announcer then tells viewers that the tradition of the Rose Bowl and college football is still around with UCLA.

“We’re definitely going to play on the fact that both the Raiders and Rams have left,” Mitchell said about the Bruins’ planned marketing blitz. “We obviously want to take advantage of this opportunity. We feel that we have one of the strongest home schedules we’ve had in the 12 years that we’ve been playing in the Rose Bowl and we expect to see a difference in both our season tickets and individual game sales.”

Lowenstein agreed: “As the media start covering [practice and] the season and our advertising gets heavier, you will see a jump in ticket sales. Everything all goes together.”

Both UCLA and USC are counting on fans such as Bill Stoneham, a 10-year Ram season-ticket holder, who within a week, had already ordered Trojan season tickets.

“I’ve followed the Rams my whole life and when they left to go to St. Louis, I had a big football void to fill,” said Stoneham, 39, who lives in Irvine. “And buying USC tickets just seemed like the thing to do to help fill it.”

Orange County appears to be an especially fertile area for both the Trojans and Bruins.

“We definitely want to concentrate there for obvious reasons,” UCLA’s Mitchell said. “There is a solid base of fans who love football and want to see a good product and have the ability to pay. We will have some ads specifically targeted for them.”

By mid-August, USC plans to have billboards up throughout Southern California that will specifically address jilted pro football fans in a tongue-in-cheek manner. Television and radio commercials will reinforce the message.

“After all, with both the Rams and Raiders gone, that’s 50% of major football gone from the area,” said Ryan, who also plans to place ads promoting Trojan football on bus shelters. “I expect us to have a sizable increase in ticket sales once the season gets here.”

Beginning next month, USC will also mail its ticket-order packages to former Raider and Ram season-ticket holders.

“Because USC’s largest concentration of alumni is in Orange County, we’re going to go heavy after Ram fans there, but we’re not limiting ourselves to just that area,” Ryan said.

Ex-Ram ticket-buyer Stoneham said Ryan and Mitchell are on the right track, adding: “If USC and UCLA market themselves right, both schools should have sellouts every game. The dedicated football fan in Los Angeles has to fill the void somehow.”